Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a spine tingling feature, launching October 2025 across leading streamers

A chilling mystic shockfest from screenwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an mythic entity when passersby become tools in a supernatural contest. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking narrative of overcoming and ancient evil that will reconstruct terror storytelling this spooky time. Realized by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and gothic tale follows five unacquainted souls who regain consciousness locked in a far-off wooden structure under the malevolent rule of Kyra, a central character dominated by a prehistoric scriptural evil. Be prepared to be drawn in by a narrative display that blends deep-seated panic with spiritual backstory, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a legendary trope in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reversed when the monsters no longer appear from external sources, but rather internally. This symbolizes the most sinister version of each of them. The result is a riveting inner struggle where the story becomes a unforgiving tug-of-war between light and darkness.


In a desolate outland, five individuals find themselves imprisoned under the dark presence and overtake of a elusive figure. As the ensemble becomes submissive to withstand her curse, detached and targeted by forces unnamable, they are required to face their darkest emotions while the time without pity runs out toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread surges and bonds collapse, prompting each member to scrutinize their existence and the foundation of free will itself. The hazard escalate with every second, delivering a fear-soaked story that harmonizes spiritual fright with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dig into basic terror, an power rooted in antiquity, feeding on inner turmoil, and exposing a being that erodes the self when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant evoking something darker than pain. She is insensitive until the demon emerges, and that flip is bone-chilling because it is so emotional.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be released for streaming beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure audiences internationally can be part of this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its release of trailer #1, which has racked up over massive response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, taking the terror to viewers around the world.


Join this gripping trip into the unknown. Explore *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to explore these fearful discoveries about the mind.


For film updates, production news, and alerts from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursed across platforms and visit the official movie site.





Contemporary horror’s inflection point: 2025 in focus U.S. calendar integrates old-world possession, art-house nightmares, set against IP aftershocks

From life-or-death fear steeped in mythic scripture and extending to brand-name continuations paired with keen independent perspectives, 2025 stands to become the most complex as well as strategic year in years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio majors bookend the months with franchise anchors, concurrently subscription platforms stack the fall with discovery plays paired with scriptural shivers. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the carry from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and now, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are targeted, therefore 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s slate sets the tone with a risk-forward move: a modernized Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, inside today’s landscape. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. targeting mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. From director Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer eases, the Warner lot drops the final chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: vintage toned fear, trauma explicitly handled, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The bar is raised this go, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The continuation widens the legend, thickens the animatronic pantheon, speaking to teens and older millennials. It arrives in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. That is a savvy move. No swollen lore. No sequel clutter. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Heritage Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Key Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror retakes ground
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The oncoming chiller calendar year ahead: brand plays, universe starters, and also A loaded Calendar geared toward screams

Dek: The arriving scare slate packs immediately with a January traffic jam, from there runs through summer, and straight through the holiday stretch, blending name recognition, novel approaches, and tactical counterweight. The major players are focusing on tight budgets, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that turn the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror marketplace has shown itself to be the most reliable move in studio calendars, a category that can expand when it connects and still mitigate the floor when it falls short. After the 2023 year showed greenlighters that responsibly budgeted scare machines can own social chatter, the following year maintained heat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and surprise hits. The upswing rolled into 2025, where reawakened brands and elevated films confirmed there is appetite for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to non-IP projects that resonate abroad. The sum for 2026 is a calendar that is strikingly coherent across the field, with defined corridors, a mix of familiar brands and new concepts, and a refocused priority on cinema windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital rental and subscription services.

Buyers contend the genre now performs as a versatile piece on the grid. The genre can bow on nearly any frame, furnish a tight logline for trailers and vertical videos, and punch above weight with audiences that lean in on early shows and stay strong through the next weekend if the offering works. In the wake of a production delay era, the 2026 rhythm signals belief in that equation. The slate opens with a stacked January schedule, then plants flags in spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while reserving space for a autumn push that connects to holiday-adjacent weekends and past Halloween. The calendar also reflects the greater integration of specialized imprints and platforms that can stage a platform run, stoke social talk, and go nationwide at the proper time.

A second macro trend is brand management across connected story worlds and long-running brands. The studios are not just making another sequel. They are setting up ongoing narrative with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that announces a new tone or a cast configuration that threads a new installment to a classic era. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the most watched originals are returning to physical effects work, practical effects and site-specific worlds. That blend offers the 2026 slate a robust balance of home base and invention, which is what works overseas.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount establishes early momentum with two prominent plays that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the front, framing it as both a relay and a origin-leaning character-centered film. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a throwback-friendly bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will lean on. As a summer alternative, this one will pursue wide buzz through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever drives pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three specific bets. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is clean, loss-driven, and easily pitched: a grieving man onboards an intelligent companion that evolves into a murderous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s promo team likely to revisit viral uncanny stunts and short-form creative that threads devotion and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a proper title to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele projects are positioned as event films, with a mystery-first teaser and a later trailer push that define feel without revealing the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor affords Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a visceral, physical-effects centered treatment can feel big on a tight budget. Expect a viscera-heavy summer horror charge that leans into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio books two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, sustaining a dependable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is calling a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both players and fresh viewers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build marketing units around setting detail, and creature design, elements that can stoke IMAX and PLF uptake and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in obsessive craft and period language, this time set against lycan legends. The distributor has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is robust.

Digital platform strategies

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal titles move to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a structure that expands both premiere heat and platform bumps in the back half. Prime Video interleaves licensed content with cross-border buys and short theatrical plays when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in archive usage, using timely promos, holiday hubs, and staff picks to stretch the tail on overall cume. Netflix keeps flexible about Netflix films and festival pickups, confirming horror entries near launch and staging as events arrivals with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a laddered of targeted theatrical exposure and fast windowing that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to secure select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly engagement when the genre conversation swells.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 pipeline with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is tight: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then using the holiday slot to broaden. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception allows. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using targeted theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their user base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By count, 2026 tips toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness marquee value. The question, as ever, is brand erosion. The pragmatic answer is to present each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is centering core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a European tilt from a ascendant talent. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the configuration is steady enough to spark pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Comparable trends from recent years frame the plan. In 2023, a cinema-first model that held distribution windows did not stop a parallel release from paying off when the brand was powerful. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror over-performed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel new when they change perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters produced back-to-back, lets marketing to bridge entries through personae and themes and to leave creative active without hiatuses.

How the look and feel evolve

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 entries signal a continued tilt toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that underscores texture and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta recalibration that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature work and production design, which lend themselves to expo activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel key. Look for trailers that spotlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that work in PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is loaded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the mix of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-October slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a opaque tease strategy and limited information drops that put concept first.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and holiday gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream check over here 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s artificial companion unfolds into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss fight to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power turns and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to dread, built on Cronin’s material craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting tale that filters its scares through a youngster’s uneven subjective view. Rating: forthcoming. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A satirical comeback that riffs on contemporary horror memes and true crime fixations. Rating: TBD. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further extends again, with a another family linked to lingering terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-first horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving forward. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and ancient menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026, why now

Three grounded forces organize this lineup. First, production that slowed or rearranged in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on clippable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

The slot calculus is real. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sonics, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand power where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.